Composed by Andrea LaRusso with lyrics by Peggy Stanziale, and produced by Nile Rodgers, who also played guitar on the track, it was the final song to be added to the album.

Rodgers had asked the writers to compose something similar to the work of his band Chic but, due to LaRusso and Stanziale being busy with other projects, the composition took time.

Despite positive feedback, "Dress You Up" was added to the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen" list due to the sexual innuendo on its lyrics.

[10] It is composed in the key of C minor, with Madonna's vocals ranging from a low-note of B♭3, to a high-note of F♯5; "Dress You Up" has a basic sequence of Cm–B♭–G7 in the verses, and A♭–B♭–Cm–Cm/G in the refrain as its chord progression.

[10] The lyrics of the song are a metaphor for fashion and sex; Madonna sings about clothes she would like to drape over her lover, so that she can cover him with "velvet kisses", and caress his body with her hands.

[12] One of the committee's founders was Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore, who said that "popular culture is morally bankrupt, flagrantly licentious and utterly materialistic ― and Madonna is the worst of all".

[13] The PMRC called upon the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to give parents "consumer-friendly means" of identifying songs "unsuitable for minors", which resulted in a rating system based on lyrical content; in the case of "Dress You Up", it was given an "S" for "sex and obscenity".

[8] On Slant Magazine's review of Like a Virgin, Sal Cinquemani referred to "Dress You Up" as irresistible;[17] Mandalit Del Barco from The Spokesman-Review deemed it a "groovy, albeit repetitive, ditty".

[18] Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens, authors of Madonna's Drowned Worlds: New Approaches to Her Cultural Transformations, compared the singer to a "sex-kitten" in the song.

[23] "An underrated slab of fashion frenzy, ['Dress You Up'] has all the polish of NIle Rodgers’s very best productions and a deceptively catchy chorus that sneaks up on you and gets in with a hammer blow".

[25] On his ranking of Like a Virgin's songs, Chuck Arnold from Billboard placed it in the third position: "[it] completely captures [Madonna] in the process of becoming a sex-positive icon.

[12] Similarly, Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost added that, despite its inclusion on the list, "['Dress You Up']'s quite mild and quite fun"; he placed the song at number 39 of his ranking of Madonna's singles.

[28] It came in at the same spot on Gay Star News' ranking, where Joe Morgan called it "her sexiest song that manages to appeal to both men and women of all sexualities".

[29] Ed Masley from The Arizona Republic named the track Madonna's 15th best, highlighting its "girlish charm that does its best to fool you into thinking there’s no sexual innuendo to be found".

[34] Billboard's Andrew Unterberger applauded its "knockout chorus, infectious synth line and exceptionally placed Owww backing vocals"; he named it the singer's 33rd best single.

[72][73] It was then included on the tour's 2009 extension, where it was performed as a "metal guitar-fest", with samples of The Knack's "My Sharona" (1979), and "God Save the Queen" (1977) by Sex Pistols.

[80][81] Billboard's Joe Lynch opined that, "the maracas might have been a little much, but the crisp Spanish guitar successfully made the songs sound newly organic".

[83] In 1999, "Dress You Up" was used by Gap in a TV spot for vests, and sung by Alex Greenwald, Rashida Jones, Monet Mazur, and Jason Thompson (actor); the music was remixed by the Dust Brothers.

[84] In 2007, it was covered by American bands Apollo Heights, and Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer and Reel Big Fish; the former's rendition was included on the tribute album Through the Wilderness, while the latter's was recorded for Duet All Night Long.

[87] A mashup of Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back" (1974) and "Dress You Up" ―performed by Blake Jenner and Alex Newell― was included on "Feud" (2013), the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of American musical television series Glee.